The present invention relates to crushing devices, and more particularly to an improved plastic bottle crushing apparatus which is manually operated and capable of crushing commercially available plastic beverage bottles or the like of all sizes in a quick and efficient manner.
Plastic beverage containers present several problems in today's ecology minded society. One of these problems involves disposal. It is clearly desirable to recycle such beverage containers but such recycling requires temporary storage until the containers can be taken to a recycling center. Containers such as two-liter bottles take up a large storage volume and therefore various crushing devices have been suggested to reduce container storage volume. Generally, these crushing devices are large hydraulically operated crushers, and as such cannot be utilized by homeowners.
Another problem involving plastic beverage containers, especially those of larger volume, is that a carbonated beverage typically occupies only a portion of the volume of the container and tends to go "flat" due to the tendency of the carbonated gases to achieve equal pressure level to that of the air above the liquid within the container. The usual recapping of a once opened container and its subsequent storage further diminishes the carbonation in the beverage since as the liquid volume to air volume ratio decreases the carbonated gases within the beverage continuously escape into the air above the liquid in the container. As a result, subsequent pourings of the beverage from the container are noticeably flat. It is therefore desirable to provide a device that could be used to prevent the carbonated beverage within the container from going flat or losing its "fizz".